Timmerman’s story, posted on Newsmax Tuesday, began: “The Iranian regime has been putting the squeeze on radical Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Sadr over the past week, temporarily placing him under house arrest and freezing his bank accounts, sources in Tehran told Newsmax.”

Asr Iran knows Newsmax well and pointed out to its readers: “Newsmax is well known for its anti-Iran aspects.”

Sources within Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, which has trained, equipped, and funded Sadr’s Mahdi army since 2003, told Timmerman they now have concerns that Sadr may have gone too far.

“They fear that Sadr’s support for the uprising in Basra, which was successfully put down by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with U.S. support, could push the United States to attack Iran,” Timmerman wrote.

Timmerman referred to a Newsmax lead story posted on Monday divulging that President Bush has upped the ante against Iran in recent weeks, giving rise to speculation that the U.S. is close to making a final decision on whether to launch military strikes against Iran.

Timmerman also disclosed that Iranian security forces on Tuesday had placed 25 members of the Mahdi army under house arrest in the Iranian border city of Ahwaz, and that the Tehran regime closed five bank accounts that were being used by Sadr largely to cover expenses of Mahdi army fighters training in Iran.